A glimpse back at San Francisco's Chinatown

Photographs capture one of the city's most dynamic neighborhoods in the mid 20th century.

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Circa 1955: The building which once housed the China Telephone Office on Washington Street, Chinatown, San Francisco, currently the offices of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. The original exchange service became redundant with the advent of telephone dialling, although for forty years it had been the only Chinese-speaking exchange outside China, serving 2,100 telephones in the area.

Orlando/Getty Images

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Circa 1955: The building which once housed the China Telephone Office on Washington Street, Chinatown, San Francisco, currently the offices of the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. The original exchange service became redundant with the advent of telephone dialling, although for forty years it had been the only Chinese-speaking exchange outside China, serving 2,100 telephones in the area.